First Annual Home Run Derby

This year, Danny and the other coaches had the idea to hold a home-run derby for all of the travel baseball teams (well, softball was invited too, but that's a story for another time) as a fundraiser.  There were 2 fields with teams taking turns hitting as many home runs in the allotted amount of time.  (Younger boys were able to hit from close to 2nd base.)  They also had "money balls" - red and gold balls were worth more points.  The boys raised donations/sponsorships for each home run they'd hit.  The event was a big success (they raised over $18,000!).  They had other activities going on on some of the other ballfields, food trucks provided dinner, and even adults had the chance to swing the bat.  It was a fun night!  I'm proud of Danny and all of the hard work he put into the evening.

Here's Colin after warming up - ready to go!

Pre-event huddle

Danny setting the stage

Papaw giving a pep talk

I volunteered to help out at one of the fields.  I played the songs each boy picked out while they batted (Danny had a nice curated list) while a dad on the team kept track of each boy's time.  I got to sit next to Bob Kennedy who is the PA announcer at the Buckeye football games.  It was pretty cool!  I snuck onto the field while Colin was at bat to sneak some photos.  One of the baseball moms snapped some pics for me too.

So handsome

Awww.  Proud dad.  Colin hit 26 home runs!

Colin's best bud, Mason, won it all!  Here are Colin, Mason, and "coach" Wes.

Siders Photography was there taking photos as well.  They got some really neat shots of Colin!

Early Fall 202

My baking buddy making apple fritter bread.  I have a couple of videos of him whooping it up with this mixer.  It was a riot.

Cadence and her fall ball team

Colin getting ready for the first annal home-run derby...more on that in another post...

"Mom, take a picture of me.  This is a cute outfit."

Why does she look so old?! 😭

I sent Colin to mom & dad's house in the morning so I could drop Cadence off at school.  He brought his breakfast with him and sent me this text 😍

 

New York, New York - Day Four

On our final day in NYC, we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed back to Times Square to check out the filming of Good Morning America and Squawk Box.  It was neat to see them in action!

You can see Andrew in the picture - Joe waved at us during a commercial break!  Danny tunes in every morning! 

Next up, a trip on the ferry to check out the Statue of Liberty.

 A nice fellow tourist took our picture for us instead of us paying for a picture 😁

We had to wait until our time to enter, so we did some walking around and had a snack.

View from the pedestal.  We could not go up to the crown due to COVID.

Ferry ride back!

We had to check out of the hotel and had time to kill, so we went back to Central Park!

Colin had fun exploring the rocks.

All-in-all, we had a wonderful trip!  We would definitely go back one day.  Maybe catch a baseball game. The US Open was going on while we were there, but tickets for the final match were ridiculous.  Maybe we could attend an earlier game.  Maybe go to a taping of The Tonight Show or SNL even!  While watching Home Alone 2, we realized we should've looked up the locations where that movie was filmed.  Guess we'll have to do that next time!  There's just so much to explore!  

The Big Apple - Day Three

LeBron James joined us on day 3 😉

We had breakfast at the counter of a nice, little diner

We were able to find out the locations of where some of the scenes of the movie Elf were filmed.  Cadence was totally onboard to recreate the scenes.  She did a great job.  It was so fun!

We strolled through a small park

Flatiron Building

Our initial intentions were to visit the 9/11 Memorial and that was it.  We weren't sure how the kids would handle learning all of the details of 9/11 in the museum.  After we visited the fountains and paid our respects, Colin asked if we could go to the museum.  He was asking a lot of questions and seemed very interested.  We found a kiosk for tickets and saw that there were some available in a little over an hour.  

One World Trade Center

The fountains were calm and serene

The Survivor Tree:

"In October 2001, a severely damaged tree was discovered at Ground Zero, with snapped roots and burned and broken branches. The tree was removed from the rubble and placed in the care of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

After its recovery and rehabilitation, the tree was returned to the Memorial in 2010. New, smooth limbs extended from the gnarled stumps, creating a visible demarcation between the tree’s past and present. Today, the tree stands as a living reminder of resilience, survival, and rebirth."

"The 60ft high slurry walls, named for their method of construction, are subject to immense soil and groundwater pressure due to their close proximity to the Hudson River. Originally, these walls were laterally supported across the site through the basement floor slabs of the World Trade Center."

"The Survivors' Staircase was the last visible remaining original structure above ground level at the World Trade Center site. It was originally an outdoor flight of granite-clad stairs and two escalators."

The museum was beautifully created.  There was a nice balance of informing everyone of the events of that tragic day as well as honoring the lives that were lost.

Next we checked out the Charging Bull of Wall Street.

The breeze from this fountain was refreshing!  It was really hot that day.

We could see the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

Next up, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.  We underestimated the length of the bridge, and it was so hot outside, that once we reached Brooklyn, we took a subway back.  Initially we thought we could cross the bridge back into Manhattan at night to see the skyline.  The bridge was very crowded with a bunch of people taking photos and selfies for social media!

Next stop was Grand Central Station.  It was neat to see.  Not too much going on since it was nighttime.  I think we also checked out Chelsea Market, but couldn't agree on where to grab dinner.